A wee thread, Part II - The boy, the bowl & the tweet that jumped the fence - update. Feel free to RT.

So, as some of you might know, my youngest, Gabriel (12) loves his woodwork. A lot. (1)
Back round Easter I put out a tweet to see if I could encourage a few more followers on his instagram page (clarkie_woodwork) and the whole thing blew up!! πŸ’₯πŸ’₯πŸ’₯ Over a weekend he went from 6 to 220,000 followers, all thanks to you crazy lovely people. (2)
He had orders for over 20,000 bowls, which he calculated would take over 30yrs to make, so instead he decided to carve just one bowl, his #bowlforUkraine to try and raise Β£5k for #SavetheChildren. (3)
The press went nuts and the story travelled the world. He spent his Easter Hols doing TV, Radio and newspaper interviews and was featured on the BBC, ITV, Korean TV, USA Today and even The Drew Barrymore Show!! (4)
In two weeks, largely thanks to your incredible generosity (and some famous faces RT-ing), he/you managed to raise over Β£250,000! πŸ’₯🀩πŸ”₯ (5)
And Gabriel's #bowlforukraine was won by Renuka Champman from London. (6)
A crazy heartwarming tale I'm sure you'll all agree.
But it didn't quite end there... (7)
Just a week later his Instagram account was hacked. For 24hrs his followers were subjected to dull photos of someone's bizarre eating habits. πŸ™„πŸ₯± (8)
That's before the wonderful people at #savethechildren stepped in and used their contacts to get the account restored - minus the 20,000 followers who had decided in the meantime that photos of someone's poor diet wasn't for them! (9)
But, as you may remember, Gabriel's original purpose was to sell his bowls to save up for a cool mountain bike. And many felt he really deserved it after all his fundraising efforts. And Mum and Dad agreed. (10)
And so did the amazing @neildonoghue13 at @gmbntweet who reached out and, with the help of @Nuke_Proof, granted Gabriel's wish! ⬇️⬇️⬇️(11)
So he got the mountain bike of his dreams!!
πŸš΅β€β™€οΈπŸš΅β€β™€οΈπŸš΅β€β™€οΈ(12)
Oh, but that's not all... (13)
A couple of weeks ago he was invited to Kensington Palace, as part of the HRM The Queen's Silver Jubilee, to be formally congratulated by Princess Anne!! πŸ‘‘πŸ‘‹(14)
And of course, as you'd probably expect, he made her a bowl too. (15)
Sorry - thread broke!! Again, thank you, you kind-hearted, crazy twitter people. πŸ™ You've make a big difference to a lot of lives. x

Feel free to continue to follow Gabriel's adventures over on instagram at clarkie_woodwork.

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More from @rclarkie

Apr 18
And so we come to the end of our little tale of the boy, his bowl and the tweet that jumped the fence.
The #BowlForUkraine is off on new adventures, journeying South, but remaining in this fair land. 1/7
But what an extraordinary tale it has been - a 'twitter-tale' of hope and joy and kindness and resolve. A tale of big hearts, huge generosity and the strange power we hold at our fingertips. 2/7
Save The Children pass on their immense thanks and gratitude for all that you have done. Lives, children's lives, will be made immeasurably better because of you, and, in some cases, saved. That is no small thing. πŸ™ 3/7
Read 7 tweets
Apr 15
A wee thread about a young boy and the tweet that got away. Feel free to RT.

Three weeks ago my youngest, Gabriel 12, came home upset. His love of woodwork was not deemed cool, nor was only having 6 followers on his instagram. 1/15 ImageImageImage
His Dad was upset too. It's hard watching your children battling with life. But what to do? Mum wasn't around, so Dad, the impulsive fool that he is, instead reached out to the lovely people on twitter. Maybe he could persuade some of them to follow his son? 2/15 Image
He was aiming for 60, the magic number in teen world when your instagram page is apparently no longer deemed an embarrassment.

So he posted the tweet and got on with cooking tea. 3/15
instagram - clarkie_woodwork
Read 15 tweets
Apr 6
A wee thread. Please RT
10 days ago my son Gabriel 12yrs came home despondent. His passion for woodwork was not cool and neither was only having 6 followers on instagram.
instagram: clarkie_woodwork 1/8 ImageImageImage
But then something remarkable happened. I put a call out on twitter, in the hope of snagging him maybe 60 followers, and within 24hrs he had over 220,000!!! @ZoeTheBall was giving him a shout out on R2 and he had 20,000 commissions for bowls and chopping boards! 2/8 Image
We've had MSM banging on the door all week, he's done interviews for the Sun, Indi and the Times and he's even appearing on Newsround today!! 3/8 Image
Read 8 tweets
Apr 2
Today's the Day! Gabriel's #bowlforukraine has gone live! After the tsunami of #twitterlove that he received last weekend his Instagram account clarkie_woodwork went from 6 followers to 227,000! He's had a week of interviews and there's even an article in today's Times! 1/5 Image
Woodwork is officially cool! But he wanted to share the love and do something for kids that really need our help. The war in Ukraine has been worrying him so he's hatched a plan. He's carved a special bowl and we've set up a JustGiving page - justgiving.com/fundraising/bo… 2/5
We all know times are tough, but if you can manage a contribution it will once again show that social media can be a force for good. And you never know - the #bowlforukraine might be yours! A priceless, iconic artefact! (or perhaps just a nicely carved bowl) 3/5 Image
Read 5 tweets
Mar 28
So I've now heard Gabriel's had a shout out from Zoe Ball on Radio 2! Crazy. His story seems to have really struck a chord, which is lovely. We could all do with a little sunshine given the state of the world. But since things have gone so public, a couple of thoughts: 1/6
The phrase 'bullying' is bouncing around and I think we need to be careful. I deliberately didn't use that word in my original tweet, nor do I think it is accurate. It's very easy for us all to demean the 'other', as a way of reinforcing who we are. 2/6
Just 5mins on here will confirm that! Inevitably kids take their cues from us so it's hardly surprising that they might do the same, especially amongst teenagers still trying to figure out who they are. Yes it's shitty but we need to be supporting ALL kids and helping them. 3/6
Read 6 tweets
Mar 27
Update: So as many of you know my youngest, Gabriel, ended last week a little despondent with only 6 followers on his woodwork Instagram. But then twitter worked it’s magic… 1/4 #clarkie_woodwork
Swept up in a wave of twitter affection and support he now ends the weekend with 220k followers! It’s all gone a little nuts but we once again wanted to say a big thank you for all your kindness. You’re all great soppy heroes. 2/4
#clarkie_woodwork
Anyway Gabriel has spent the day carving his #bowlforukraine which he is hoping to raffle to raise as much ££ as possible for kids over there. I’ll keep you posted but Gabriel will give you the details himself on his Instagram #clarkie_woodwork. 3/4
Read 4 tweets

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